![]() ![]() The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster. Mortimer is an appealing little creature in Chapman’s illustrations, showing his determination to find a cozy bed, but the volume’s greater appeal for families and schools will be as a simple but satisfying story that focuses on the true meaning of Christmas rather than on Santa or presents. Mortimer’s prayer is answered in short order when he finds a gingerbread house set out for Christmas Eve. Mortimer then realizes the meaning of the statues and the baby Jesus figure and offers a prayer to Jesus to send him a home of his own. He moves the baby and the other statues out of the house each night so he can curl up in the manger until he overhears the Nativity story read out loud on Christmas Eve. Too creepy.” At Christmastime, Mortimer finds a house that is just the right size: a Nativity set with a little hay-filled bed that’s a perfect fit. Little Mortimer Mouse craves a mouse-sized house of his own because his mouse hole is not a pleasant place-“Too cold.
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